The Gola National Park in Liberia: realising its vast potential Project

The Gola National Park in Liberia: realising its vast potential Project

Gola National Forest in Liberia. Photo: BirdLife-SCNL

This two years Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation funded project started in January 2013 and builds upon the foundations of the Across the River Project. The goal of the project is to facilitate the establishment of the Gola National Park in Liberia and support local communities to sustainably manage forest resources to maximize benefits for them whilst protecting globally threatened endemic wildlife. This goal is being achieved by strengthening and intensifying collaboration between the government forestry authority, CSO and local communities by focusing on awareness raising, capacity building, field training and operational support for the Gola forest guards, by setting up a participative biodiversity and threat monitoring program, and by implementing alternative sustainable livelihood strategies in local communities. In addition the project will facilitate collaboration between the forestry authorities of both Liberia and Sierra Leone on transboundary policy harmonization and the development of joint strategic and work plans.

Project news

The biodiversity of Liberian forests is rich with endemic and endangered species, creating a very high level of conservation concern. The National Wildlife Conservation and Protected Areas Management Act has been finally endorsed by Liberia’s Lower House of Representatives and is now waiting for ratification by the Senate.

The Liberian Government has been undertaking some admirable steps as part of efforts to conserve the remaining disappearing West Africa Upper Guinea Forest Ecoregion; a biogeographic region which is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot of global importance.

The Across the River project presents an over view of the biodiversity research done in the past three years in the Gola National Forest in Liberia and the Gola Rainforest National Park in Sierra Leone.